Cotton Candy
by Torie Rilistkrytcat
Summary: For New Year's eve, Heather is insistent that she and Alejandro spend the evening at a carnival, something that the Spaniard does not enjoy. Oneshot, based on an idea given to me ages ago by ICAAC.


**This fic is based on another awesome idea given to me by I'll Cover Angel and Collins. Guys, a word of advice; READ HER FICS! She is awesome :) LOL she gave me this idea ages ago though, but because I'm lazy and haven't written enough lately it's only just going up now...**

**I don't own the rights to Total Drama, and I typed this on an IPad which likes to autocorrect stuff so it doesn't make sense.**

**NOTE: I am NOT happy with how this turned out, because I'd written about half of it, then the document cut out and I hadn't saved a huge chunk. I lost most of this fic and so I had to rewrite it, and I don't think it turned out as well this time...**

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A carnival usually attracted three kinds of people- there were the sugar high children, dragging their exhausted parents along to rides of their choice and begging for junk food and stuffed animals; the kind of people who went along for the sake of getting drunk and defacing a few things before throwing up in the chemical toilets, and then there were the teenage couples. Though it made her feel sick to admit it, on this particular year Heather was there as one of the latter. It was quite childish, but Heather had always had a weak spot for carnivals. She'd never really understood why, since she despised almost everything that made a carnival; greasy food, having to wait in ridiculous lines, tacky neon-lit rides... Yet somehow, parceled up in one they complemented each other, creating an irresistible atmosphere. It was one of her creature comforts, mooching around the run down stalls during the evening, whilst eating something off a stick of pathetic, grease-stained paper plate. Carnivals were the one setting where Heather would break her usually healthy diet; somehow, though she would always regret it when the greasy or sugary aftertaste lingered in her mouth for days, the cheap and low-quality was almost impossible to turn down.

Every new year's eve, a carnival would set up on usually empty fairgrounds that were within walking distance from her house, and almost every year since she was thirteen Heather had spent the evening there. She loathed the new year's eve parties her parents held- spending the evening with a group of falsely-cheerful social climbers while Heather's mother fussed over preparing disgusting canapès was _not_ Heather's idea of a good time- and though she had felt obliged to attend a few of the wild parties that the in-clique at her school held, they usually morphed quickly into an evening of drunken couples making out or disappearing upstairs while one or two people vomited in the lounge room. So the queen bee found comfort in hitting the carnival scene instead, indulging her more carefree side. It was something she actually looked forward to each year, and when her boyfriend asked her what she wanted to do to celebrate the new year, going to the carnival had been her automatic response.

Alejandro, however, did not share her secret love for the carnival, and had almost choked in shock when she told him she wanted to go.

Everything that Heather privately found endearing about the carnival just revolted the Spaniard. While his girlfriend viewed it as a place of lighthearted enjoyment, he thought of the carnival as a complete waste of money and space, full of shrieking children running wild and excessive amounts of mess. He despised every inch of it, especially the sights and smells of all the fried food- if there was one thing Alejandro could _not_ stand, it was _junk food_- and had expected Heather, who usually stuck up her nose at everything, to be the same. When suggesting that they do something together on New Year's, he had been envisioning something tasteful, like a waterfront dinner together or drinking vintage champagne at midnight. At first, when Heather had responded, Alejandro assumed he'd misheard. Then, after realising that she really did want to go to the carnival, he'd fervently tried to talk her out of it, trying desperately to persuade her to opt for an activity that was less... _Tacky_. However, despite his suggestions and attemts to smooth talk her into conceding, Heather had been set; she'd been going to the carnival for five years, and no matter how much her boyfriend hated it, this year would be no exception.

"Look, you can go to some lame restaurant if you want to," she'd sniffed, folding her arms in a way that told him she wasn't going to back down. "But _I_ am going to be at that carnival, and if you want to spend New Year's with me, then you'll have to be there too."

Obviously, Alejandro did want to spend New Year's with his girlfriend; on December the 31st, he found himself staring dully at the crowd, face twisted into an uncharacteristic scowl. Heather rolled her eyes at how dejected he looked, half-dragging him towards the ticket booth.

"For God's sake, Alejandro," she snorted at his revolted expression as they passed through the barriers. "You're the one who always wants us to do stupid 'couple-y' stuff together..."

As they stepped into the fairground, they were engulfed with the familiar carnival atmosphere; neon lights, the sounds of screaming from rides mangled with the music blaring from stalls and announcements playing over the speakers and the scents of frying oil. While Heather seemed to actually be revelling in the familiar atmosphere, Alejandro shuddered.

"While I do enjoy spending time with you, _mi Amor_," he informed her drily, sidestepping a large puddle of spilt soda. "I do not understand how you can like such a tasteless venue."

Heather's eyes narrowed defensively. "Are you saying I have no taste?"

The Latino shook his head swiftly in response. "Not at all... After all, you have incredible taste in boyfriends, do you not? I just don't see why you like _this_," he gestured to their surroundings, "So much."

"Sometimes, I don't get why I like YOU so much, jerk." Heather muttered drily, navigating her way through the rows of stalls that were set up. She could tell Alejandro loathed the whole carnival scene, and while a more understanding or fair girlfriend would have spared him from spending an evening feeling bored and disgusted or at least compromised, offering to spend time doing what he wanted later on, Heather was _not_ an understanding or fair girlfriend; she wanted to spend the evening at the carnival, and she was getting her way no matter how much Alejandro complained or sulked.

"Well, now that we are at this _atrocity_, what do you want to do?" Alejandro askee Heather dully. The queen bee considered this for a moment- there were several things she definitely _had_ to do before the evening was over- before a familiar smell.

"Get something to eat," she shrugged, and Alejandro's stomach flopped over in protest at the mere notion of eating something from one of the portable fast food stands. There was absolutely no way that he would consume anything fried in second-hand, congealed grease. Having assumed that Heather, who usually fretted about her weight, would be the same the Spaniard had already pre-prepared a small assortment of gourmet picnic foods for them to eat, which he began to draw from his bag.

"Since the food here is hardly nutritious, I took the liberty of packing some-" He paused, only to notice that Heather had cocked an eyebrow, staring down at the food that he'd brought in disbelief.

"Uh, are you _for real_?" the Asian scoffed, tossing her long, dark hair. "Seriously, have you ever actually been to a carnival before? I am not eating any of this stupid stuff," She pushed the container of food back at him sharply, before whisking her purse from her pocket. Alejandro stared in confusion and half horror at her as she moved towards one of the stands.

"You mean you actually want to eat some of this..." He racked his vocabulary for a suitable word to describe just how foul he found the food available. "This _repulsivo_..."

Before he could finish, Heather clapped her hands over her ears in an overdramaticlally gesture.

"Please, don't start with all the spanish!" she groaned- though she secretly actually liked it when Alejandro spoke in Spanish, she would often make a dramatic show of complaining how annoying it was when he threw in a few superfluous words in his native tongue.

"I thought you preferred healthy food," Alejandro pointed out; it seemed extremely odd to see Heather, who usually turned down anything that wasn't gourmet, organic and healthy, planning to buy the kind of food made in a deep fryer at a run down demountable carnival stand. Heather shrugged.

"Yeah, I do," she responded, drawing out a five dollar note from her purse. "But _hello_- we're at a carnival. The food's half the point of coming here."

"I don't see any point in coming here," Alejandro muttered lowly, but Heather pretended to ignore this, leaning up towards the serving window of one of the nearby stalls. She looked out of place against the whole dirty, disorganized backdrop in Alejandro's opinion, though he couldn't deny that the whole carnival experience seemed to be opening up an almost childish excitement in her, something he'd never imagined Heather would be capable of. If it was something she enjoyed so much, then he thought with resignation that he might as well try and appreciate the gaudy setting. After all, if it was something that Heather deemed good enough, then it must have some value...

However, any rational thoughts drained from his head in shock when Heather turned back around, clutching a huge pink turret of cotton candy. Automatically, the Spaniard recoiled from it; cotton candy was possibly the most repulsive food of them all in his opinion. He hated sugar, and presented in a sickly sweet, crumbly mass colored a too-bright pink almost set his gag reflex going. Heather, to his surprise, seemed to be relishing the food; he watched as she took a large bite, sugar caking her plump lips and leaving a faint sticky, powdery residue.

"Cotton Candy?" He said the words as though she was eating dog food. Heather nodded, swallowing a vast chunk of the pink concoction.

"It's good, _actually_," she informed him pointedly, waving the stick in front of his face. "You should eat some..."

She said it only to antagonize him, knowing that he wouldn't actually take her up on the offer, though his eyes bugged out at the very idea- with the reflections from the neon lights scattered across his face, it made his mortified expression look even more ridiculous. Heather didn't know whether or not to snort at his overreaction or to shove a chunk of her sugary food into his mouth to spite him.

"You look like I just asked you to eat rat poison," The queen bee told him drily, one eyebrow arching. Alejandro gave her confection a look of pure contempt, as though it didn't even deserve to exist.

"Rat poison would probably be healthier," he muttered under his breath, though Heather heard this and glared at him.

"What is your _problem_?" she scoffed, pulling another fluffy chunk from her food and popping it into her mouth. "Are you that much of a baby about food?"

"I am not a baby," Alejandro crossed his arms defensively, leaning against a rather worse-for-wear picnic bench. "Just because I do not like to eat something so disgusting..."

Heather rolled her eyes once more, before downing another bite of cotton candy with an overdramatic moan of enjoyment. Alejandro still looked like someone being tortured, but didn't object.

Heather dragged him around to the main attractions of the carnival, all the while snacking on the enormous wisp of cotton candy Alejandro was sure was larger than her head. He failed to see just what enthralled her so much about the carnival; it didn't seem like Heather's kind of place, and yet she was lapping up the atmosphere. She insisted that he experience every single part of the carnival, dragging him along the craft stalls, listing all the rides that they would go on later, and insisting that he win her prizes, all the while lavishly consuming her seemingly endless stick of cotton candy. The aroma of sugar clouded Alejandro's senses; his girlfriend's mouth and hands were completely covered in the unhealthy substance.

Heather was relishing her treat. Cotton Candy was one of her creature comforts- she knew it was stupid and completely unhealthy, but it was her yearly indulgence, and no matter how much Alejandro grimaced, she was going to eat it. However, the more her boyfriend recoiled from the stupid food, the more irritating it grew and the more she was determined to enjoy her carnival food. So, despite feeling sick of sugar by the time she'd finished her stick, Heather insisted that they return to the cotton candy stall once more.

"You want MORE?" Alejandro choked out, wondering if he'd fallen into some terrifying nightmare. Heather responded with a devious smirk, handing the money to the beefy and bored-looking man working at the stall, who set about twirling another stick in the pink gloom. This was possibly his idea of hell; his beautiful girlfriend, who was his favourite thing in the world, wasting money on his least favourite thing in the world.

"Nope, _I_ don't want more..." Heather told him, taking the cotton candy out the sweaty hands of the vendor, before practically shoving it in his face. "This is for you, and you are going to eat it."

The look on Alejandro's face was priceless- his usual arrogant expression morphed into a deer-caught-in-headlights look.

"_Que_?" He stared in horror at the puffy confection, which Heather waved in front of his face.

"You are going to eat this," she demanded, before shooting him a snide look. "Or what, is ickle baby Alejandro too scared to eat junk food?"

Alejandro narrowed his eyes at her, before shoving the stick of cotton candy away.

"Just because you have a certain fondness for that disgusting food does not mean I am expected to eat it," he told her, before turning away slightly. Heather snickered- Alejandro's delicate stomach was ridiculously fun to taunt him about.

"Have you ever actually eaten cotton candy?" she questioned, and the Spaniard gave her a scandalized look.

"I have never ingested something so sugary," he told her, making Heather scoff loudly- how could he be so disgusted by cotton candy when he'd never even tried it?

"Well, you don't know what you're missing." she sniffed stubbornly, shoving the candy back in his face. "Eat it."

Alejandro swallowed slowly, feeling almost trapped by the food Heather was confronting him with.

"Would you honestly have me contaminate my precious temple? " He objected, before with a ridiculous flair tearing off his shirt to show off said "temple", revealing his perfectly toned, smooth chest and abdominal muscles. Though several girls in the area stopped to stare in longing at him, Heather raised an eyebrow.

"Was ripping off your shirt really neccessary?" she snorted. "You know that's just stupid, right? People are staring at you, and you've just wrecked your shirt..."

Alejandro shrugged. "Still... You would not have me taint _this_," he swept his hands down his exposed torso, which was glinting slightly in the cracked neon lights from the stalls surrounding them. "With that disgusting sugar, would you?"

Heather groaned slightly. Alejandro was being completely ridiculous- she was sure that most normal guys would ave eaten the cotton candy or at least declined it politely, instead of acting as though she'd condemned them to a death sentence. He could be so ridiculously childish when he wanted to be...

"Okay, tell you what?" she snapped. "I've been looking forward to this stupid carnival, and you're just ruining it. If I promise to do something stupid and romantic with you tomorrow, will you please just lighten up and act like a normal person for one night?"

Alejandro hesitated, before cradling his chin in one hand in mock consideration.

"If I, as you so delicately put it, "lighten up" tonight, does that mean that you'll agree to have dinner with me tomorrow?"

Heather nodded quickly; though she hated doing something stupid and cheesy like going out to dinner, she was just relieved that Alejandro was finally being a little bit more reasonable about the whole carnival thing.

"Fine, whatever."

Alejandro's face curled into a sly smirk that immediately made Heather suspicious. "And it will be a very romantic restaurant, I promise."

Heather shrugged. "Yeah, of course."

"With flowers? Red Roses?"

Heather's eyes slitted furiously, and she gave a huff of irritation. "You're pushing it, jerk-face... Fine. I will have a stupid dinner with you tomorrow, with flowers, IF you stop being so stupid about the carnival, and if you try a piece of cotton candy."

Alejandro shuddered, but reminding himself that it would be worth it since Heather was allowing him to take her out to dinner- something he frequently wanted to do but that she turned down all the time- he slowly pulled a minuscule piece of pink cotton candy from her stick, cringing at the feel of the grains of sugar on his hands, before placing it in his mouth. It had barely been on his tongue for a whole second when the overpowering taste of thick heavy sugar and food coloring assaulted his taste buds and, almost gagging, he spat out the piece of candy onto the ground. It tasted even worse than he'd imagined, so artificial and sickly-sweet, and he had no idea how Heather enjoyed it...

"Um, _Ew_." Heather stared down at the piece of regurgitated candy in disgust, before straightening up- at least Alejandro had actually tried it, even if he was currently scraping his tongue and rinsing his mouth out with a bottle of water that he'd packed. "I need some adrenaline. We're going on rides now, got it?"

Alejandro would have liked to make a comment about how unneccessary and idiotic rides were, but instesd nodded submissively. "Whatever you say, _mi chica_."

He linked his hand in hers as she led him down towards the blinding lights and screams of the carnival rides. It was completely dark overhead, and Alejandro's watch informed him that there were two hours to go until it was officially the new year; he suppressed a groan at the notion of spending another two hours at the carnival, reminding himself of how rewarding it would feel to take Heather to a romantic location the following evening. Despite his earlier irritation at her insistence to make him eat cotton candy, he had to note fondly just how pretty she looked in the contrasting dim light scattered with the colorful neon signs, hair tied back in a low ponytail that streamed down her back like a snake. The Spaniard leaned in, pressing his lips to hers suddenly, and though she was startled for a moment, Heather began to relax a little into the kiss...

Until Alejandro jerked away from her lips suddenly, eyes wide with horror, and began- rather rudely, in Heather's opinion, wiping his mouth frantically. This was both confusing and slightly offensive; he was usually the one who prolonged their kisses, but now he'd seeme in an eager hurry for it to end.

"What?" she snarled, and Alejandro gave her a look of pure horror.

"I'm sorry, but I cannot kiss you at the moment." He took a slow breath, wiping his mouth once more. "Not while your lips taste so pungently of cotton candy..."

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**Yeah, the ending was kind of rushed, because I already wrote it and it didn't save, the I had to rewrite it and I'm tired. What do you think?**


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